Praying in Public: A Guidebook for Prayer in Corporate Worship

by Pat Quinn, Kevin DeYoung (Foreword)

A Comprehensive Guide to Corporate Prayer  God commands his people to pray together and answers graciously when they do. The Bible specifically calls on church leaders to guide this essential form of corporate worship, but it can be challenging to pray boldly and confidently in front of others. This practical, step-by-step guide was created to help pastors and church leaders pray thoughtfully and biblically in public. Through seven guiding principles, Pat Quinn illustrates how to lead prayers of adoration, confession, and supplication to God, and covers the history of public prayer in Scripture. He also includes elegant, reverent, gospel-centered examples from the Latin Liturgy, John Calvin, the Puritans, John Wesley, and others, as well as many examples of his own congregational prayers. Pastors and church leaders will learn to glorify God more passionately, effectively intercede for the church and the world, and find joy―not fear―in praying publicly.

Genres: Prayer, Theology, Church, Christian Living, Christian, Nonfiction, Christianity

176 pages, Hardcover

Published July 27, 2021

Reviews

[H.b. Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. It is a must read for all who lead prayer in public worship gatherings. However, I also found it helpful, challenging, and encouraging in my private prayer life. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit that I had the belief that spontaneous public prayers were more spiritual or authentic than scripted prayers. But I never held the pastor or the music minister to this standard in their preaching or singing. And I've also seen how much more engaging public prayers can be when some time is taken by the speaker to prepare what they want to say to the Almighty.

I highly commend this book to any pastor, worship leader, elder and anyone else who is ever called upon to pray in a corporate worship service. It is a great tutorial on how to pray in ways that engage the mind and the heart - to be intentional in coming before the throne of grace on behalf of the congregation.

[Mike Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are already settled on the place of corporate prayer in the services and for a more reformed liturgy, this book will serve as an excellent guidebook. For someone like me who is outside of that tradition, I do wish the author had spent more time getting me acquainted with the “why” behind their liturgy. There were dozens of excellent sample prayers for each type of prayer, and these sample prayers make up half of the book.

[Mike Fendrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a common misconception that if prayer isn't spontaneous, it isn't authentic. While neither I or the author desires prayer to be a rote exercise of duty, thinking through corporate prayers prior to their delivery will insure a better chance of the congregation engaging with and in the prayer offered.

The author walks this somewhat fine line and gives very helpful aids for the development of an effective corporate prayer ministry within the church and its services. Very much worth the read.

[Nathanael Barr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely marvellous. So glad to have read this. Leading prayer in worship services is something that I have often struggled with. Not knowing quite what to say or how to structure it. I have found it easier with time, but this book provides a really helpful basis to give me a better picture of how to lead prayer in church. Concise and clear. Quinn gives good direction and lots of helpful illustrations and examples. Definitely recommend.

[Jarrell Lemos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing revolutionary, but a valuable read for seminary students. Lots of sample prayers for inspiration in part two of the book.

[Sophia Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Targeted for corporate worship, but there was still a lot of applicable wisdom!

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ad-libbing while leading in prayer during a worship service is not a great practice, though one I've been guilty of frequently enough. This book is intended to help those leading in worship (which I dearly hope are pastors, or at least elders; no separate "worship leader" on staff, please!) as they plan prayers. Quinn (a long-term staff member at University Reformed Church in East Lansing) leads us through various elements of prayer, and then provides lots and lots of examples in the second half of the book. Thus this will be an important reference work as well as a pedagogical tool.

A few of the prayers sound off, as does a small portion of the advice (such as not wanting to sound like you're reading a prayer; if you're reading a prayer, there is nothing wrong with it sounding as such!). But all in all this is an excellent resource that pastors should utilize as they seek to lift their corporate prayer over the banal, repetitive, and self-centered.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short book on how to pray better prayers in the worship service. I came away convinced that some preparation is necessary and that making up each prayer in the moment is not the best practice.

The book briefly goes through the different types of prayers with suggestions on how to write better ones. The last few chapters are filled with examples of written prayers.

The book was a great primer on the idea. I think it is useful and would suggest it for anyone who prays publicly.

[Brian Parks · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent overview of how to effectively lead corporate prayer. Nearly half the book are sample Prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication that were used during worship at the author’s church. Definitely a book that I will return to as I write liturgies, but also in my own personal times of prayer.

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book lives up to its secondary title as a “guidebook for praying in corporate worship”. The first half consists of many short chapters on the general principles of prayers (I found the chapter on gospel-centred prayer too short) and the second half is a compendium of model prayers. What I appreciated most about this book is the chapter on practical instructions and exercises for us to do to improve our prayers. I will do these once I’m done with Valley of Vision which is my current supplement to my daily Bible reading.

[Jordan Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main purpose of the book is to contend for the importance of scripture based, thoughtful, and worshipful corporate prayer. He gives 7 guiding principles for those leading in public prayer. There are also a number of wonderful prayer examples from godly saints across time. The last 1/3 of the book is examples of prayers of confession, supplication, and adoration. I would recommend this short read for anyone involved in public prayer ministry.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really a great book to get you thinking about how you can have more effective and doctrine rich prayers. As someone who has to pray in public every week it can be intimating and I never want o take that lightly. It does take time and effort but I believe it is worth to point others to Christ and not focus on ourselves so much during prayer, which is what can often happen.

A copy of this book was given to me through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding resource for anyone who leads prayer in corporate worship. The author, a seasoned elder and worship leader, gives seven Biblical principles to guide the preparation (and performance) of prayer for worship services, and then gives wonderful examples of Bible-saturated, theologically informed, and spirituality edifying prayers. As a pastor, I learned a lot! And I ordered copies for my elders too!

[Derek Plegge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is split up into two sections. The first is key principles to public prayer and the second is sample prayers.

There was nothing “life-changing” with this book, but the author did give me a couple of things to think through when praying in public. I’m looking forward to diving deeper into the second section in my own prayer time as I seek to grow more in this area. There is much to be gained when reading the prayers of others.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an eminently practical guide to prayer. It’s geared towards praying corporately, whether in a Sunday school hour or as part of the liturgy of a service - but it has great applicability in personal devotion or dinner table/bedtime prayers as well. About 1/3 of it is the book itself (set up nicely in a format that could easily be used as a 3-4 meeting class on the subject), and the rest are sample prayers. Would recommend this book.

[Caleb Orella · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half was beneficial, but I think it would have benefitted from a clearer vision of what it was. Rather than being half a book on prayer and half an example of prayer, it would have been a four—or even five-star read if it had been an entire book on either. Nonetheless, it fills a need to discuss the importance of prayers in the church and how we ought to take them seriously.

[nate]

Well written and well organized. The first part of the book argues for regular and intentional public prayer when the church gathers to worship God and the second part gives examples and templates for doing so. Our church has sought to grow in this area and I found this book to be immensely helpful for doing so.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pat Quinn writes very clearly, and this book is an easy and worthwhile read.

The book provides firstly a range of advice on writing prayers for corporate worship, and then a very broad range of examples. I found the first section particularly helpful, the examples less so.

I would recommend this particularly to anyone wanting to be more thoughtful in their corporate prayers - anyone who finds their prayers lacking in substance.

[Vincent Lemieux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the book is samples of different types of congregational prayers. The didactic part is a good attempt to demonstrate the scriptural basis and congregation wants for what I call pastorale prayer.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent guide for public prayers. It gives plenty of historical and modern prayers for you to read and consider. Lots of good nuggets in here for elders leading worship and those preparing liturgies for the order of worship in a service.

[Cole Shiflet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received an advanced copy from Crossway and will be writing a review for TGC on this book. I will add a full review once my review is published.

[Cameron Boutwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Praying in Public by Pat Quinn was an over all message of intentionality that commands the Christian to approach prayer with the utmost seriousness, especially in the public assembly of the church. It conveys the importance of engaging all of one’s human faculties when leading in prayer.
I disagreed with the some of the applications of his points in that, when applied as thoroughly as the author seems to intend, it makes leading in public prayer out to be more of a production for the audience, than an intimate relational communication between God and man.
Over all it is not a bad book. It is a good starting point for helping understanding what Gods word has to say about the intentionality of our prayers and how that is practiced and lead in the church.